Warframe: Prime Trilogy
by Birsin
Summary: Excalibur has awoken to find himself surrounded. He must escape and find his way to the Dojo, where other Tenno are.
1. Chapter 1

Darkness. It surrounds me as I sleep, awaiting the day that I wake up and can be of use. I do not remember my name, nor do I remember my purpose. All I know is that I must sleep until she wakes me, until the day comes when I am needed again.

I hear her voice. "Wake up Tenno. The Grineer are here. You must escape." I am awoken from my dream and dropped from my pod of slumber. I find myself weak, collapsed to the ground as if in submission. Something walks to me, or maybe someone. I can barely understand it, my mind is so fuzzy. He puts something on my shoulder, and it digs into my flesh, granting me pain. My mind clears and I can understand the half-garbled words coming from the creature.

"My queens will be gracious to me for capturing you Tenno, for no one has been able to capture one of you until now. This device will help me in doing so, it will bore into your very being until I gain control of you." It continues to talk, but her words cut through like a sword and embed themselves into my mind.

"You must escape Excalibur. I'm overloading your systems. You must get a weapon as soon as possible. Go now!" My entire body surges with energy, allowing me to stand. The ugly faces of the creatures in front of me fuel my desire to move, to escape. I release the excess energy building up in my body, knocking all of the creatures to the walls, killing some of them in the process. The one that was talking to me disappeared somehow. I must focus, I must escape. I stumble to the bottom of the pod in which I slept, where three weapons wait for me. A Skana, a dagger, and a staff. A feint knowledge of how to use each weapon surfaces in my mind, but one is more prominent than the others. I pick up the Skana, feeling the comfort I have with the weapon, and attach it to my back. I stretch out my legs and run to the entrance, taking care not to stumble. I must find a way to escape. A path lays before me, created by her, The Lotus. She will help me in my endeavors, I'm sure of it. I head down the path, taking in my surroundings. Images flash in my head. Explosions, death, gunshots, fire, war. What happened before my sleep? Why was there war? I do not know, but I know there were more once more Tenno. We were squadrons strong, and overwhelmingly powerful. Are there any left, other than me?

"Yes Excalibur, they are waiting for you at the Dojo. They are waiting to welcome you home." Home, what is a home? I cannot remember, but it sounds comforting to hear. I slip into a comforting daydream where I am accepted, and safe. That comfort is broken by the sound of a gunshot and the feeling of impact.

"Excalibur, use your sword to deflect their gunshots, your shields can only last for so long." I take up my Skana just in time to block the next bullet. I rush the enemy, swinging my weapon and slicing them in half. This is no time for comfort, this is a battleground, and I must stay aware. I start down the path again, quicker this time, exterminating the foul creatures that attempt to attack me. I find one of their mobile armories, and look for a weapon. I need something that will give me range, allow me to stay away from the enemies instead of forcing me to get close. A MK1-Braton catches my attention. I lift it up and look down the sights. It feels comfortable in my hands. I fire a few shots. Accurate, quick, and comfortable. I attach it to my back and look for a supporting weapon. I pick up a Lato. It's a bit heavy, which means it won't do well with speed, but I don't need speed. I hold it up and test fire it. Powerful and accurate, just what I need. I attach it to my leg and head out, pulling the rifle from my back. I'm ready now, I can protect myself from anything. I must head home.

I come to the ruins of a town. The images come again, screams echo in my head. The creature speaks in my head this time. "You're remembering, aren't you? The old war. You Tenno killed many of us, but we grew strong once again. You cannot stop it this time. We will exterminate all that oppose us. We shall use your body to create better Grineer brothers, and our Queens will not have to concern themselves with our broken, deteriorating bodies."

"You will not take me, I will not succumb to your control" I reply doubting he can hear me.

"Oh you will, so long as that device is attached to you, I will eventually take control of your mind." He appears in front of me in a flash of yellow energy. "I am Captain Vor, the most trusted of the Queens' Grineer. I will not fail." I barely am able to dodge as he swings his sword.

"This is the time to run Excalibur. Go, he is too powerful for you now. Regain your strength and you will be able to fight him later." I take heed to The Lotus's words and run, hearing Vor's distorted voice slowly disappear behind me. I reach the extraction point and a ship is waiting for me.

"Operator? Is that you? Oh how long has it been since Ordis has seen you? Come, we must escape to the Dojo, the others are waiting for you there." The voice is familiar and inviting. A panel flips in the bottom of the ship as it hovers above me and reveals an indentation perfectly my size and shape. I jump and grab one of the handholds. "Hold on Operator, Ordis will get you to safety." The craft flips over and I slip into the indentation on the craft. The panel flips again and the ship takes off to the stars.

"Oh how relieved Ordis is to see you Operator. I suspected you to be dead, but The Lotus pressed me to believe in your survival. Sorry for the mess. Those Grineer raided the ship and took whatever they could to aid themselves and make themselves more powerful. I may have a few glitches in my - KILL THEM ALL. Oops. See?"

I look around the interior. Wires hanging from the ceiling, panels on the floor, and components strewn across the deck of the ship. "Why did they do this?" I ask the friendly voice.

"Ordis thinks it's because their technology is far less superior to ours, so the- bastards -Grineer took all they could use."

"Is there any way I can repair you?"

"Your ship, along with Ordis, will be repaired at the Dojo. Do not worry Operator, everything will be - we're all going to die - fine."

"That's a relief." I look out the front of my ship, at least they didn't remove the life support or front windows, and see a large, elegant station come into view. The Dojo, home of the Tenno. A beautiful merging of technology and art. Memories flood into my head, reminding me of my training that I partook in here.

"Lay in the panel Operator, we must dock soon." I lay in the indentation and wait as we dock. The panel flips and I walk into the open space of the Dojo. The main hall is empty, but the air smells sweet with memories that were made and more that are waiting to be. I walk a bit farther before I feel a dagger on my throat.

"Don't move buddy. If you want to live, you'll have to do exactly what I say." says a strange voice in my ear. "Now, bend over, I'm going in dry." I elbow my assailant and turn around, sword in hand, but no one is there. "Aw c'mon I was only having fun with you. No need to freak out." I look frantically for the voice, trying to connect it to a body.

"Where the hell are you?" I shout into the open space. "Show yourself!"

"Well I was going to, but then you attacked me. That wasn't very friendly of you."

Another, more gravelly voice shouted, "Loki! Enough with your antics. Greet our fellow Tenno with respect." I turn to see a giant figure step through a doorway.

"Awe, why should I do that Rhino? I just wanna have fun for once."

"The others are resting, you may be on watch tonight, but harassing Tenno is not part of your job."

"You're right, It's part of my personality!" A lanky form shimmers into existence next to the one called Rhino. "He's a new guy anyway, he needs to learn to stay on his toes." Loki looks up at Rhino as if taunting him.

"Go to your quarters Loki. or do you want me to "take care of things" with you again?" Rhino towers over Loki, challenging him to oppose his orders.

"Fine. I'm not finished with you new guy?" Loki says, facing me. He walks away making lecherous motions with his hands. until he disappeared behind the doorway Rhino came in previously.

"Sorry about him. He's an ass to everyone. What's your name?" Rhino says approaching me.

"I stand up to try and match Rhino's height, "Excalibur, sir." I reply, taking care to use a respective tone. His arms are as thick as my waist, and I don't want to test his strength.

"Excalibur, I thought you guys were extinct. What's that on your shoulder?" He asked, pointing at the orange device Vor attached to me.

"Captain Vor attached it to him in an attempt to control him, we need to remove it quickly." The lotus replies. "I know I'm asking a lot of you Rhino, but you must protect him and help him take that device off. "

"How do I know he's not being used right now Lotus? Vor could be listening in to our conversation right now."

"That is why you must help him as quickly as possible. He will be useful to you in the future. He has the hidden protocol."

"Fine. Follow me Excalibur. I'll show you where you'll be staying for the time being." I follow Rhino through the doorway and up to a living area.

"What did she mean by hidden protocol?" I ask out of curiosity.

"That's none of your concern. You may want to take off your helmet and warframe when you sleep. It's more comfortable that way."

"What do you mean?"

"Look at yourself, that's not your skin, that's a suit. You'll have to leave on your right arm because of that thing, but the rest, you can take off. Just think of your suit coming off and you should be able to step out of it." He shows me into a room with a bed and dresser. "There are normal clothes in the dresser, they should fit you."

"How did you know I would be here and need this room?"

"We always prepare an open room, just in case another Tenno happens to pop up out of nowhere. No go to sleep, we'll have food in the morning."

"Thank you Rhino." I say to him earnestly. He nods and walks away, leaving the door to close. I imagine the suit coming off and it opens, allowing me to step out. I fall to the floor, realising that my strength only came from the assistance of my suit. I crawl into bed, completely bare, other than my right arm and instantly fall asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

I awake from my nonexistent dreams to see a gaunt face with short, dark hair and golden flecked green eyes looking down at mine. I stare at it for a bit, determining whether it was familiar or not, until words emerge from his thin lips.

"Why sleep in the nude bro? I mean, there's nothing wrong with showing off, especially with how you look, but we have clothes that we can sleep in you know." Loki? How did he get in here? What does he mean? It takes me a couple seconds to realize what he means, and I immediately pull the sheets up to cover myself.

"What are you doing in here?!" I yell at him, completely aware of the burning in my face.

"Rhino sent me to fetch you, breakfast is ready. And don't worry, I didn't do anything to you while you were asleep except for take pictures. You should lock your door at night so this doesn't happen again." He smiled with glee at my embarrassment. "I have to say, you'll give Rhino a run for his money with a body like that. See you at the table." He walks out smoothly, as if he had practiced beforehand, leaving me to get dressed. I slide to the edge of the bed, putting my feet on the floor, and slowly stand up, so as to prevent my collapsing to the floor. I make my way to the dresser, each step making me wobble from the misuse of my legs. I get dressed gingerly, deliberately, making sure to brace myself against the dresser, while keeping my long blonde hair out of my face. I think about why I'm having such trouble. I'm lean and muscular, but walking is a chore on my body. Probably because I have to get used to my muscles after sleeping so long. At the same time, I think about cutting my hair. making it shorter. I sit on my bet, take my skana, and start to cut. With each swipe of the blade, a group of hair falls to the floor, glowing gold in the artificial light, and with each strand cut, my body relaxes more and more. I look in a mirror to see gray blue eyes, specked with gold and roughly cut golden hair just covering my ears. Deciding it's the best I can do for now, I exit the room into a long hallway lined with doors. Loki is leaning on the wall, waiting for me.

"What took you so long? Were you having a good time without me or something? Oh, you cut your hair. You prepping to show off to all the guys? I'm sorry to break this to you, but not all of them swing that way. Believe me, I've tried."

"Why are you waiting for me in the first place? You could have gone and been eating without me." I reply, breaking his speech. He looks away from me, but I can see a bit of red in his face as he speaks. "It's not like I wanted to. Rhino and the others told me you'd probably have trouble walking down the stairs without your suit." There's a bit of a stutter in his voice, like what I said was unexpected.

"Did you have trouble going down the stairs your first day?" I ask, curious of his answer. He reels back and replies as if he had been attacked. "Hell no! What do you think I was as wimpy as you are. I stepped down those stairs as if I owned them."

"Well then, could you lead me to the table please? I'm Kind of hungry." I say, again cutting of the inevitable speech.

"Sure. Follow me hot stuff." He leads me to the mess hall, helping me down the stairs along the way. We arrive to find that most of the others are already gone. "Hmm, they must have left on some missions. We'll just have to get you acquainted to the ones that are here." He leads me to an open seat and walks away while a slender woman with short red hair places a bowl full of oatmeal and a cup of dark liquid in front of me. She looked at me with golden flecked red eyes that seemed to burn with curiosity and excitement.

"I'm Ember, you must be Excalibur." Her voice flowed through the air like a silky flame washes over its fuel.

"Yes, I am. I just got in last night." I reply with a tone of nervousness. She feels dangerous in a way, as if she could wipe me out at any moment but she chooses not to.

"There's not much to get used to, other than the Tenno here," She looks at my arm with interest, "We'll have to get rid of that ASAP. Otherwise all of us could be compromised."

"Do you know what this is?"

"It's a device that Vor has developed to try and control the warframes and the Tenno inside. So far, you're the only one unlucky enough to be stuck with one." She sits on the table as I start eating. "You're a cutie. We don't get many good looking Tenno here. Ones like Nekros and Valkyr are too scarred or altered to be attractive in my opinion. Then there's others like Nova and Vauban who are just too normal looking for me."

"I've already been hit on by Loki. Thanks though, you're not as lecherous with your compliments as him." I drink a bit of the dark liquid. It tastes bitter and herbal in my mouth, washing down the bland flavor of the oatmeal. "What is this drink?"

"Tea. You're lucky, that's the best drink we have here. Otherwise, it's water or some sort of sludge, depending on Trinity's mood. The sludge is supposed to be healthy for you, but I think she gives it to us just to remind us that she's the only good cook here and we shouldn't get on her bad side." As she was finishing, a tall, well built, male with white hair and fair skin walks over.

"So this is the new guy. How are you? Excalibur right?" His voice sounds commanding, but friendly.

"Yes, that would be me. Seems like word travels fast around here." I finish my oatmeal and turn to face him while holding my cup of tea in hand.

"There isn't a lot of us in this dojo, and Rhino briefed us this morning. I'm Oberon," He holds out a hand and I shake it, his grip is firm. "I can see you've already met Ember. I'd watch out if I were you, she's a fiery one." He chuckles as Ember softly punches his arm.

"Oh stop it would you. I'm being friendly this time." She laughs a bit with him, then turns to me. "I got pissed at Loki on his first day. He kept being a smartass and hitting on me so I knocked him out."

"Does he do that to everyone then? I've just sort of ignored him." I take the last drink of my tea and set the cup on the table.

"Yeah. He's a giant pain in the ass, but he's useful so we keep him around." Ember whistles and a giant floating green peanut comes to my dishes and takes them away.

"What is that? Some sort of robot?" I ask, surprised at what I had just seen.

"That's a Carrier. He's one of our sentinels, mostly useful for picking up around the dojo and such. We have more, but they're all sleeping." Oberon answers. He sits down next to me. "Have any questions for us?"

"How many Tenno are left?" I look at both of them, their faces instantly turning somber at the question.

"There used to be hundreds," Rhino's voice boomed from across the hall. He stands up and walks towards us, his deep ebony skin rippling from his muscles, "There were many Dojo's like this one. After we went to sleep, the Grineer started hunting us. One after another, they killed us, slowly destroying the only hope the galaxy has in defeating them. As soon as the Lotus started waking us, they destroyed the Dojo's. Tenno started dying easier because they had nowhere to go. I was the first to wake up and find the last surviving Dojo. Broadcasting on a secret channel, many Tenno found their way here, to safety. There are only twenty of us left, including you, but we hope to find more as soon as possible. That is why, if you pose any threat to our clan, I will not hesitate to kill you where you stand. If that thing takes you over, you are no longer a Tenno, you are a Grineer." He looked at me with his golden flecked black eyes, as if he were sucking me into the void of space so I would no longer be a threat to him or any of the clan. I nodded, trying my best not to flee for my room to get my frame. I can't rely on it here. I'm safe so long as I'm not taken over by this device.

"How do we remove this thing from my arm?" I ask the open air, hoping for a response from the cosmos.

"There is one person who may know how to remove it." I hear the lotus say through the building's speakers. "His name is Darvo, he is a Corpus black marketer that has been sympathizing with the Tenno. He could supply us with information as well as the components your ship is missing Excalibur."

Oberon stands up and replies, "He is untrustworthy, and has been captured by the Grineer, is there another way Lotus?"

"Unfortunately not. Unless you are willing to let the only Excalibur left in existence become a puppet of Vor, this is our only option. Besides, if Vor got hold of the hidden protocol, we would have little to no chance of stopping him."

"Then I guess we should get you moving." Rhino stands up and continues to speak. "Alright, Ember and Loki, you'll go with Excalibur to the Grineer Earth prison. Take care of him, but don't hesitate to kill him if he shows any signs of betrayal." He leans next to me and whispers, "If you hurt Ember, I will rip your body in half."

Oberon looks at me and says, "Same for me, except that goes for everyone and you'll be burned instead. Have fun, and don't get into too much trouble." I nod halfheartedly and start for my room. At the base of the stairs, someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn to see a shorter girl with silver hair and gold specked silver eyes. She looks up to me and hands me a necklace wrapped around a component to something.

"This will help you stay safe. Come back safe Excalibur." Her voice sounds small and nervous but resonates a sort of power. She turns and runs back to the dining hall. on the end of the necklace is a golden pendant with silver wings. I take the necklace off of the component and put it on.

"You're lucky, Mag only gives things like that to people she sees as important." Ember says from atop the stairs. I look up and see her in nothing but her underwear holding her clothes and immediately shield my eyes. "What? You need to take off as much as you can so your warframe can directly sync with your nervous system."

"How do you know that Mag thinks I'm important?" I question her.

"Because you're the only one whom she has given anything to. Now strip down and suit up." She walks off and I finally uncover my eyes to see a naked Loki take her place.

"Like what you see Excalibur?" He says, posing in various ways to best show himself off. I run up the stairs, almost falling over, and push past him to get to my room. while in my room, I take Ember's advice and undress. Before stepping in my warframe, however, I see a slot to insert the component. after inserting the component, my warframe glows for a couple of seconds. I step inside, allowing the frame to engulf my body. Looking at my systems, I see that my shields are higher than before.

"Thank you Mag." I whisper, stepping out of my room and into the hallway, where Loki and Ember are waiting for me.

"Alright, let's get going guys. Call your ships and follow my lead." We walk to the docking station and get into our ships, taking off for the surface of Earth.


	3. Chapter 3

Each of us drop from our ships onto the overgrown surface of Earth. I take a few moments to take in the area. The smell of a still living ecosystem, even after what apparently happened during the great war. I look at Ember, "Ordis told me this planet was supposed to be barren, after all that happened to it. So why is it still thriving?"

"We honestly don't know." she starts looking around, as if it amazed her as well. "There are old documents we have recovered in our visits here. They say something about a spirit that embodies this planet called Gaea. She was the caretaker of this planet, and she would never let this place fall into despair. That could be why this planet could still be fertile." Her face is covered by her helmet, but it feels like she is smiling underneath.

"Enough with the mushy things guys. How are we going to break this guy out of prison?" Loki breaks the calm, "I mean, seriously. The place is a high security fortress, surrounded by guards, with layer upon layer of security checks."

"I thought you broke through Corpus security several times over, and assassinated over a thousand Grineer without anyone knowing until a week later." She stands in front of him, challenging him to oppose these facts.

"Actually, it was two weeks" Loki says holding up two fingers and then using them to push Ember's face away from his.

"Then why are you complaining? The plan is simple. You use your invisibility to scout ahead and Excalibur and I will follow behind. If you get the chance to thin out some of the Grineer, do it, so long as we don't sound any alarms. Once you get to the cells, keep an eye on the warden. They do anything suspicious, disarm them or assassinate them."

"Alright, I got ya. Give me a few minutes before you follow though. Like you said, want to be stealth." He disappears in front of my eyes. I stand staring at where he was for a few minutes before turning to Ember.

"How the hell did he do that?" I ask her, bewilderment in my voice.

"Wow, you really must have been asleep a while. Each frame has different abilities. Loki's specializes in stealth. Mine, well, I burn things. I don't know what yours does though."

"Well how can I find out?"

"Well, we use suit energy, which is stored up within our frames, to use it, try and focus on the energy. Maybe there's something in your memory that will trigger it." I stand still and close my eyes, trying to focus on the energy already coursing through my body. Something triggers and I feel a giant wave pass through me. I grab my skana and take a step forward. I find myself at least fifteen feet from where I was before. The surge lessens in my body and I stumble a bit.

"Well that was fun." I laugh a bit. "Going to have to do that more often."

"Better not do it too much, It takes a toll on your body. Use it too much and It could rip you apart." She walks over and slaps me on the back, causing me to stumble forward a bit. "Now come on, Loki should be done by now." We follow the waypoints Loki left for us, occasionally finding bodies that hadn't deteriorated yet. We stop just outside of the cell block. "Loki, you ready?" Ember says into the com.

"Of course I'm ready darling, when would I not be. Come on in and wreak havoc why don't you?" A hint of nervousness is in his voice, but we open the door and start firing. Grinner were everywhere. Hiding behind cover, flying across the room, coming up to us to try and punch us in the face, we moved from cover to cover, avoiding as many of the incoming bullets as we could.

"Darvo's cell is on the other side of this block. I'll hold here. You get over there and try to get through the terminal. I'll distract them as much as I can." She pushes me in the direction of the cell and I run off as fast as I can, deflecting bullets with my sword as I go. I reach the terminal and find Loki there already. I run up just as Loki unlocks the cell.

"I need a weapon. Please, a pistol will do." Darvo says as he steps out of his cell.

"Here use mine." I hand over my Lato. "But I better get it back after this."

"Of course, of course. We better head out though. Your friend here doesn't seem too up to fighting." Darvo looks at Loki and I notice he's hunched over grabbing his abdomen.

"Don't worry 'bout me sweetie. There won't be any performance issues when we get home." He let out a weak laugh. "We can have Oberon and Trinity fix me up back home. It'll be fine." He stands up slowly, and starts walking towards the exit. I follow him closely, and Ember catches up with us after burning the last enemy.

"You need to hurry, there's a platoon of Grineer coming for you." Lotus tells us. "Loki, can you run?"

"Of course I can! What the hell do you think I am, Rhino?" The coms produces static while recovering from his shouting.

"Then we'll head onwards. Let's move out everyone." Ember starts running towards extraction with Darvo, but I stay close to Loki. We cleave a path, through bullets and blades, to get to extraction. I thank Mag again for the module she gave me, otherwise my shields would have run out long ago. We get to extraction and I notice that Loki is gone.

"Loki, where are you?" I ask through the coms.

"Go on without me, I'll make it to you later." He replies in between coughing fits.

"I'm not leaving you Loki. Lotus, can you pinpoint his location?"

"Yes, but he doesn't have much longer to live. I suggest your temporary nano-med aerosol in your suit. That should sustain him long enough to get him back to the Dojo for treatment." Lotus replies quickly.

"Then lets grab him and get out of here." I run into the mob of Grineer, cutting them in half and reflecting oncoming bullets into the heads of surrounding Grineer. I reach Loki and, putting my hand to his abdomen, release the nano-med stored in my hand.

"Why come back for me? I'm fine. You guys would probably be happier without me." He says weakly, as we are surrounded by Grineer forces.

"Stay down." I stand up and let my body fill with reserved energy from my suit. I stab my sword into the ground next to Loki, releasing all of the energy built up and impaling all of the remaining Grineer to the walls. "You may be a pain in the ass Loki, but I know that you are a Tenno. And, as I see it, we can't lose any more, no matter what. We have to exist and protect each other as a family." I pick him up, stumbling from the exertion of my energy lance ability. "Now let's get you home before you die, okay."

"Well I must say, you sure know how to handle a man." He chuckles softly as I put him inside his ship. "See you tonight Excalibutt." I could almost see him wink at me before he was flipped inside of his ship. I step into my own, closing my eyes to rest until we get home. That's right, home. I'm going home again.

Upon arrival, Loki is met by a giant dog-like creature as well as Oberon and Trinity in their frames. "He was missing you Loki. You really shouldn't lock him up in your room all day." Oberon says while the canine approaches Loki.

"Hey Thor. How's my bro doin?" He petted the beast, regarding it as an old friend. "Alright, enough with the puppy therapy guys. Let's get this over with." He walked with them to what I assume is the medical room while keeping his hand on the animal at all times.

"What was that?" I asked Ember as soon as the door shut behind them.

"That is a Kubrow. Only him and Rhino have one, both different breeds. That was a Huras breed. Used for stealth and assassination. A fitting pair I might say." She started walking to her room. "You might want to get some sleep. It's been a long day for the three of us." I decide to take her advice and make my way to my room as well. Inside, I disembark from my frame and put on a T-shirt to sleep in. There's a knock at my door and I go to answer it, expecting it to be Loki with another smartass comment. I open the door to find Mag, barely dressed, standing in front of me.

"C-can I borrow a shirt to sleep in? All of my clothes are in the wash." She asks timidly. Her face is red with embarrassment and she is looking down at the floor.

I look at her, bewildered and say, "Sure, I guess." Blushing profusely from the adorable Tenno, I go to grab one of my shirts and she follows me into my room. I give it to her, and she puts it on, the size of the shirt big enough to cover past her waist and the long sleves cover her hands.

"Actually, I wanted to sleep with you tonight. My room kind of freaks me out at night, and you feel like a safe person." She looks at me with her glittering golden gray eyes.

"S-sure. Do you mind me locking the door?" I move towards the door.

"No, I don't. It could be safer anyways." She crawls into my bed under the blankets. And, after locking the door, I accompany her.

"Why are you so scared Mag, If you don't mind me asking."

"While in my frame, I'm not. But outside, I'm fragile. My frame uses magnetic charge to fuel its abilities. Because of that, my bones are more fragile than usual, as well as my immune system being a bit lower. While I'm in my frame though, my shields protect me. I'm invincible as long as my shields are up. That mod I gave you was the one I used to use before I made a better one."

"So why did you give it to me? Why sleep in the same room as me? You don't even know me Mag." I turn to her, somewhat confused.

"Because you feel like someone I can trust." She pulls a necklace out of the shirt I gave her that looks exactly like mine. "And you feel like one who will protect me." She cuddles against my chest and, within minutes, falls asleep. I carefully wrap my arms around her and whisper. "I won't let you down madame."


	4. Chapter 4

To fight. That's why we are here. That is why the frames were given to us. The factions grew out of control, and we were given the task of keeping the balance. What happened to that balance? I'm awake in a room I have not been in for a long time. I look around, trying to find anything that will Identify what is going on. The room is completely white, and in front of me is a man sleeping on a table who looks much like myself. I approach him to see if he will wake up, but he is not breathing. I reach out to touch him, but there is no hand that belongs to me, only golden streams of light cascading from the center of my being. I move closer to the body, wrapping it in the energy that makes up my being, and I open my eyes. I sit up, looking around. I am still in the room. I hear cheers over a speaker, and a familiar voice talks to me.

"You are Alpha Excalibur, the first Tenno. Welcome to your new existence." I search for the location of the voice, but cannot find it. "You will be tasked with something special, Tenno. You will be trained to protect balance, and exterminate any force that upset's that balance. You can call me what you like, for I will be your guide."

"Lotus," I say immediately.

"What was that?" The voice replied.

"Your voice is beautiful, like a lotus flower."

"Then I shall be known as Lotus." There was whispering in the background, as if people were amazed at my ability to speak. The scene changes, and I am being taught how to fight, how to protect, and how to read morality within the humans. Years pass, and the Lotus grows weaker, and older, but I experience no such change. So soon, her passing comes, and I am distraught with an emotion the humans call sadness. The ones in the coat yell at each other.

"Get it moving! We need it operational for the demonstration."

"We can't. Ever since she passed, he's been moping."

"It's not human, it can't feel like the rest of us! It's body was grown in a tank to be able to contain and harness its energy. We need that funding, or else the factions will go to war!"

"Give me time. She was working on something that could be vital to this whole operation."

"Fine, I'll give you three days, then we put him in the suit for trials." Three days pass quickly, as if they're nothing, and they present me with my suit. There's no word from the nice man, just a nod as I step into the suit and it closes around me.

"Hello Alpha Excalibur," says a voice, beautiful like a lotus flower. "As you can already tell, I am the Lotus."

"How?" I ask, my body shaking in amazement.

"Before I died, I stored my brain digitally in a server. I suspected you would be sad about me leaving, so I preserved myself just for that purpose and left my assistant the details about activating it."

"Thank you Lotus. Thank you for not leaving" I feel tears start to roll down my face as I follow her instructions for the demonstration. The scene once again changes, and I am in a room of pods with bodies being grown in them. Hundreds of bodies in all directions that look exactly the same. No features, no hair, no gender. Blank slates. Lotus's assistant, Ordis, stands next to me.

"These are the other potential Tenno. They look just like you when you were in a pod."

"No, this body looked like it is now. It could not have changed." I look at him, confused.

"That's not true. Before you entered your body, it was as nondescript as these ones. Lotus said something like, 'When the being enters the body, the energy from the being creates characteristics matching its energy, that is why these bodies can accept them, because they are adaptable to the beings that will control them'. It's a wonder really. Within such a short time, we have discovered all of this." He gestured toward the room, indicating all of what has come from their project, and from me. "The Orokin faction, creating a new species to help keep peace between the other factions."

"Why can they not keep peace themselves? Is there something wrong with them?"

"Well, the Grineer military and Corpus trade factions have some disagreements, but the Grineer Military faction got a hold of some of our cloning technology and we fear that they may try to take over. The good thing is that the cloning technology they stole was incomplete, unlike the cloning tech we use to create these Tenno. We'd destroy this technology before the Grineer faction could take it."

"What is your faction?" I ask earnestly.

"The Orokin science faction. We are tasked with the advancement of human society. We're so far in the future from the other factions that we could live forever, but none of us can pilot a warframe. That's why we created you Alpha." The image blurs and I find myself training a group of Tenno that look similar to me, but with different hair and eye colours. I train them with the help of the Lotus, and soon we are in war. Excaliburs dying left and right. The Grineer overwhelming us. Other Tenno in their warframes, different from ours, having just as much trouble. Suddenly, I am receiving a medal, along with the other commanders and what remained of their platoons. We accept them without showing the sadness within our hearts, and we leave to cry behind walls. The scene changes again to me being lead to a stasis pod.

"Why must I sleep Lotus?" I ask the air.

"They have no use for us any longer, we must rest until we are needed again." I hear her beautiful voice say, as I drift off to sleep.

I awake, taking in the real world. I feel a comfortable warmth against my body, and remember that I'm holding Mag, protecting her from the evils of being alone. I kiss her head as she sleeps still, against my chest. What was that dream? I try to remember it, try to remember every piece of it, but it continues to slip away. I lay with Mag for a while, waiting for her to wake up, and a knock comes at my door.

"Hey, Excalibutt, Darvo is on the Comm and wants to tell you something. Come on and get your butt out of here." Loki shouts from the other side of the door. I decide to wrap Mag in my blanket and pick her up to take her with me. I step outside the door and see Loki with an angry expression. "About time. I guess I should've guessed that she was with you since we couldn't find her anywhere else. Follow me, I'll take you to the comm room." He storms off in direction of the room. Mag nuzzles against me as I hold her and I can't help but nuzzle her before following Loki.

"The device is called an Ascaris. It is a parasitic device created by Vor to try and control the warframe and the Tenno inside it." I hear Darvo say over the speaker in the Comm room while I come around the corner. As soon as I enter, all twenty Tenno look at me and stare.

"What? Did I do something?" I look at each of them in turn until Ember steps forward with a smile on her face.

"This is just adorable. I'm glad she's found someone to keep her safe." She walks up and brushes Mag's forhead. Mag's eyes flutter open and she yawns. "Good morning little Mag." Ember says.

"I thought the door was locked Excalibur." Mag says, burying her face into the blanket wrapped around her.

"Oh, I'm sure it was, but you're not in his room anymore little Mag." At that, Mag looks around the room and realizes where she's at. She blushes and wraps the blanket around her face, hiding herself completely.

"You okay Mag?" I ask her, worried I might have done something wrong.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Go ahead with the meeting, I'll just be in here." She curls up a bit in embarrassment.

"Go ahead Darvo," says Rhino, "tell us more about this Ascaris."

"Well I have the blueprint for a negator, but you need resources for it." He says, sending a copy of the blueprint to the computer in front of us.

"Ordis can copy this to the ships' forges." Ordis pops in.

"Thank you Ordis, no further interruptions please." Rhino tells him.

"So I can show you a place where the corpus are gathering a big shipment and you can go loot it to make the device." Darvo continues.

"Send us the coordinates and we'll go there." says another Tenno with a somewhat light raspy voice. "I'll be accompanying you this time, and I'm sure Mag will want to go too." I feel her nod against my chest. "My name is Ash. I specialize in assassination, like Loki, but I'm more direct. Kind of like a striker assassin."

"Striker? Who's role is that?" I ask.

"Well, you could say it's yours, mine, Mag's and Ash's." Says a female Tenno, with a voice that floated through the air as if it owned the wind. "We go in, swing our swords, and rush out. We can also take supportive positions when on a team with Tanks like Rhino and Frost."

"And you are?" I ask her.

"Zephyr. Wind Is my specialty." She shakes my hand and starts to walk out of the room. "Let's suit up then. We have work to do."


	5. Chapter 5

"Alright, we're going to a Corpus planet. They're big on anything technology. For instance, shields, drones, energy weapons, and walking turrets called moas." Zephyr says through the mic on the flight to the planet.

"My polarize can take out their shields pretty quickly." Mag interjects.

"I can take them out pretty easily throwing shuriken at them. What about you Excalibur?" Ash looks at Excalibur, his face hidden by his helmet.

"I still haven't discovered all I can do. I can dash forward and cut them in half, or exhaust myself by shooting lances around me, other than that, I don't know." He looks down, feeling in shame for his lack of ability.

"Well, we'll find out soon enough. Alright, I'll be covering you up high with my sniper, but I'll jump in every once in a while." Zephyr pauses a bit, waiting for anyone to continue the conversation. "Alright then, this is a resource gathering mission. We get the goods and we get out."

"Are we clear on our objective?" Ash finishes through the mic.

"Clear!" Everyone replies.

"Alright. Let's get through this and get home safely." With that, the conversation ends and their ships enter the atmosphere of the Corpus planet.

As soon as they land, Zephyr takes off, flying to the nearest rooftop. "I'll scout ahead and thin out the group. Ash, do the same on the ground."

"Copy that. Mag, ready your polarize, and Excalibur, cover her. I'm off." Ash rushes away, leaving the couple to themselves.

"It's said that there's a sword here, an ancient Tenno sword belonging to the first of us. It's supposed to be powerful, at least in the hands of the one who knows how to use it." Mag says walking forward. "No one knows what it's called, but no one has ever used it other than the first."

Excalibur follows Mag, images of a sword and sheath running through his mind. "Nikana. The sword of Alpha."

Mag stops and looks at him. "Is that its name? The sword of Alpha, the Nikana?"

"Yeah, I think so." Excalibur rubs his head, now throbbing from the visions. "It has two forms, Nikana, and Dragon. But I don't know how I know this."

"Maybe you knew him, before you lost your memories. He's supposed to be an Excalibur frame."

"Maybe. I don't know." He takes a deep breath, steadying himself. "Let's get on with this, I'm ready to get this Ascaris off of me." They continue onward, killing off the corpus that stray into their path, making sure not to trip any alarms. Within a couple of hours, they had gathered almost enough resources to create the device Darvo specified.

"The only place that we haven't checked is down here." Ash pointed to a flight of stairs. "We'll all go down together. Zephyr, take out your Kronen, this is going to be tough." Zephyr attaches her sniper to her back and pulls off two bladed tonfa that look like wings against her arms.

"Commander Zephyr. The bladed wings." Excalibur whispers to himself.

"Yes, remember, remember for me. The more your mind reveals, the more knowledge I will receive." Vor's voice echoes in his head.

"No, I won't let you in." Excalibur kneels as the others start down the stairs.

"Go with them Excalibur, there is something waiting for you down there. I'll hold off Vor." The Lotus's calming voice takes Vor's place in his mind.

"Thank you Lotus." He says, following the others down the stairs. Once at the bottom, they were greeted by rows of storage containers crammed with resources and lines of display boxes with artifacts unlike any ever seen.

"This way, all we need is a morphics or two and we'll be done." Ash whispered.

"I'll gather what I can with Mag, you boys go together and search for the morphics. We'll meet up with you soon." Zephyr takes Mag off to look for resources for the dojo. Ash and Excalibur pass display after display of ancient Tenno weaponry while looking for morphics.

"Why don't we just take some of these weapons? I know they could help us tremendously." Excalibur says, breaking their silence.

"Believe me, we tried. But we soon discovered that each case has a system of alarms on it. The only things we were able to grab last time were Zephyr's Kronen, Mag's staff, and my glaive. There have been other attempts, and each with the same success as the last. One item for one person." Ash's voice sounded more hoarse the more he talked about the matter, so Excalibur chooses to let it rest there. They soon found a container full of the mysterious metal, morphics, and gathered as much as they could. On their way out of the container, a display case catches Excalibur's eye. Inside rested a pristine white sword, energy radiated from its scabbard, drawing him in.

"Ash, I think this is the Nikana." Excalibur says, catching his attention.

"The what?" Ash walks over and looks at the sword.

"The sword of the first Tenno, the Nikana."

"This thing? It's just a normal sword. There's nothing special about it."

"Everyone hear me? I'm going to break out this sword. I know what it is. Be ready to run." Excalibur broadcasts to their team.

"Are you crazy? You could kill us all!" Zephyr's voice broadcasts back to him.

"Be ready. Ash, can you lead them out, I'll be able to dash out on my own."

"I'm not leaving you here Excalibur. We're a team and we need to act like one. Now stop talking crazy and let's get moving." Ash grabs Excalibur by the arm, but it's too late, as Excalibur's Skana cuts through the case, causing the White sword to fall to the ground and the alarms to go off within the whole facility.

Grabbing, the sword, Excalibur attaches it to his hip and rushes after Ash. "Ordis, can you send us a closer pickup area?"

"Indeed Operator. I'm sending you a waypoint now." A green Icon flashes on his virtual HUD, marking the new pickup for the Tenno.

"Good, now collaborate with the other ships and have them all pick us up there."

"Will do Operator. Sending the coordinates now. Come back safely now."

"Ash, teleport ahead of me and meet up with the others, the ships are picking us up at a new location. Make sure they get there safe."

"You're going to be in so much trouble when we get back you know." Ash replied with concern.

"I'll take whatever punishment I receive for it. Now go!" As soon as Excalibur finished, Ash disappeared in a puff of smoke. Excalibur rushes up the stairs and down the corridors, finding crushed and impaled bodies as he runs. As soon as he exits the building, he sees Zephyr fly into her ship, and Mag taking off in hers. Ash stands by his, waiting for Excalibur to arrive, killing Corpus in droves.

"C'mon Excalibur, get over here." Ash's voice echoes over the comms.

"Hang on." Excalibur replies, channeling energy through his suit. He takes the pristine sword's hilt in hand and propels himself forward, landing next to Ash. He looks back at the Corpus as each of them fall, bleeding profusely from their wounds. "Let's get out of here." he says, stepping into his ship and taking off with Ash right behind him.

There's no conversation between them as they fly back to the Dojo. Once they arrive, Excalibur is greeted by Rhino, his face betraying his anger as they walk towards each other.

"Step out of your frame Tenno." Rhino says to Excalibur. He obeys, opening his frame and stepping out. As soon as he takes two steps away from his frame, he is met with Rhino's fist. "What kind of stunt was that." He punched again. "You had no right to put them in danger like that." He punched Excalibur over and over in the face. "None! Do you hear me?!"

"I found the Nikana. The sword of the first Tenno." Excalibur says after Rhino stops his barrage.

"Well that makes it okay I guess. Way to go, you found the blade of the first Tenno. Are you able to use it?" Rhino's voice is heavy with sarcasm as he punches him again, breaking his nose, causing golden blood to flow out of his nostrils. "Well you definitely bleed like a Tenno, so I can't call you anything but one. Suit up and meet me in the sparring ring. We'll see if you can use that Nikana of yours. Put away your guns, we're only going to fight each other with our melee weapons." Rhino walks away to put on his frame and Excalibur steps back into his.

"Wait, Excalibur." Mag walks up to him. We need to get that thing off of you first, and you need to go see Trinity, or Oberon."

"If I go see Oberon, he'll do the same thing, or worse. Besides, I'm not doing anything until I fight Rhino. He may not believe it, but this is truly the Nikana." Excalibur walks to his room and deposits his guns and skana before heading to the sparring room.

He enters the sparring room to see Rhino already kneeling, ready for the fight, the other Tenno, kneeling in the observing portion of the room. Excalibur kneels across from Rhino, taking his place as the opponent.

"You know the rules yes? Once you fall, the round is over. In this case, there will only be one round." Rhino says to him, his tone laced with anger.

"I am aware." Excalibur says before a ding pierces the silence of the room, marking the start of the sparring session. Both of them stand and Rhino takes a giant two sided axe from his back, letting it thump on the ground, causing it to vibrate profusely for a few seconds. Excalibur takes the hilt in his hand and stands ready. Rhino rushes him and swings downward with his axe. At the last second, Excalibur raises the sword and scabbard, deflecting the blow, and draws the blade, slashing it across Rhino's chest. Rhino stumbles backwards from the deflection, his anger fueled even more by his mistake. Rhino swings across and hits Excalibur, tossing him against the side panel. Excalibur focuses, channeling his energy into his weapon, and rushes Rhino. He dodges another, bone crushing attack and unsheathes his sword, guiding the blade from Rhino's hip to his opposite shoulder. A bellowing scream echoes the halls as Rhino falls to his knees. Excalibur kneels to Rhino and looks downward.

"You can either take the victory, or leave it at a tie. Either way, I have proved my point to you." He lays his Nikana sheathed in front of him and awaits Rhino's decision. Rhino stands, raising his axe above his head, and lets it fall. There's a loud "thunk" as Rhino's weapon embeds itself into the floor in front of him, missing Excalibur and his sword by a few inches.

"There is no reason to take victory. You have proven your resolve to me as well as your ability in that weapon. But you are clearly not the Alpha. If you do something like this again, you will meet the butt of my axe and face my judgment as well as Oberon's." Rhino kneels in front of Excalibur, ending the spar, and proceeds to leave the room as well as everyone else but Trinity, Oberon, and Mag. Excalibur ejects from his frame and starts coughing up metallic coloured blood on the floor.

Oberon walks up to him and punches him in the back of the head, almost causing him to black out. "He's right you know. If I got to you first, you'd be coughing up more than blood my fellow Tenno."

"Then I am thankful that Rhino got to me first." Excalibur responds, breathing heavily while laying in a growing pool of his own golden blood. Trinity kneels down to him and starts spraying aerosol nano meds on his wounds.

"You should have seen Mag, I had to hold her back when you were thrown against the wall." Excalibur's wounds instantly start to close, and his energy flows back into his body. He sits up, allowing Trinity to fix the bruises on his face.

"One more thing." Oberon says, taking his nose and popping it back into place.

"Ow! What the hell?" Excalibur says in pain, covering his nose.

"That's the only way to fix your nose. Otherwise, you'll have to wait for it to heal." Oberon says, stepping into his nearby frame and sending an orb to Excalibur. Excalibur feels a warm comforting sensation wash over him, causing him to almost lay down and sleep. "That should help the rest of the way."

"What was that?" Excalibur watches him step out of his frame.

"He calls it Renewal. I call it kisses, because it looks like he's blowing a kiss at us." Trinity giggles at Oberon's disgruntled expression. "Mag has been waiting to get that thing of your arm, though, so let's not delay." She waves for Mag to come over. Mag kneels next to Excalibur's arm and attaches the negator to his arm. She presses a button and Excalibur feels a sharp pain run down his arm. She pulls the Ascaris off and destroys it with her magnetic abilities.

"There you go. No more worry right?" Mag says, opening her helmet and smiling.

Excalibur smiles and says. "Yeah. No more." But his smile disappears as he doubles over in pain.

"False Tenno. I have discovered more than you can know. The Warframe is not the source of power, you are." Vor's voice brings up flashbacks to his dream, of entering his body, of being trained to use his energy. "You are the source of power that the frame feeds off of. With you, we can perfect our cloning technology and conquer the galaxy."

"No, you'll never have me." Excalibur curls into a ball, holding his shoulder. The other Tenno with him are speaking, but he cannot hear them through the pain.

"Inside of you now is a bomb. If you do not give yourself up to me, it will go off and you will die. Come find me, and I will offer you retribution." The pain lessens and Excalibur hears the other's concerned voices, asking if he's okay.

"I need to kill Vor. There is a bomb inside of me, and it will explode if I don't. All of you stay here. I have to face him alone." He enters his frame and starts walking to the door.

"Don't leave on your own. I'll help you." Mag says, chasing after him. "You shouldn't do this by yourself."

Excalibur grabs Mag and hugs her close. "If I fail, I don't want anyone to be there with me, to watch me die. I will take care of this, and I will see you soon." He taps his helmet to hers and walks to his ship. "I'm coming for you Vor, just you wait. I'm coming to kill you."


End file.
